Ask Slashdot: What Should I Study?

A fellow Slashdot reader is seeking advice on a new field of study: After many years at the same company, I'm now thinking of a change. At my current place of work, I have worked on many different projects, from server side development, to UI development, and most recently, a lot of data science work. If I were to rate myself, I consider myself to be a good developer, thorough, conscientious and always willing to learn new things. Even my recent foray into data science (though not entirely new, since my graduate studies specialized in machine learning) has had reasonable success, and ideally, I'd really like to continue working in this space.

But, I'm starting to feel in a rut and I'm looking for a change. And looking outside my company, I'm not sure how to begin. Should I hit the books again? Should I focus on any specific technologies? I haven't particularly kept up with new technology -- after working for so long, I tend to think of that as something I can learn, when I need to. Any advice on how I should go about preparing for interviews? I'm quite willing to put in a few months of work into prep, so all suggestions are welcome!

Comments

Innovation

[JaredOfEuropa]

I have worked on many different projects [...] I tend to think of that as something I can learn, when I need to.

Sounds like you're a bit of a generalist with the will and ability to dive into a specialism when needed. If you really feel you need to "pick a side" and specialize, then all advice I can offer is: find something you love doing and specialize in that. But if you enjoy the learning process itself, the experimenting and ground-breaking work with new tech, then maybe you can find a job working in an innovation team.

Innovation is a bit of a buzzword, but there is plenty of legit innovation work out there. Innovation teams often offer a chance to learn new tech or new ways of doing things, and require a lot of flexibility from their team members. Perhaps that will suit you... I've been involved in innovation for 20 years or so, and I not only enjoy the great variety of technologies I have to deal with, but also the fact that I often get to wear many different hats: from project manager, team lead, architect, to coder and business analyst. Sometimes you'll be a one man team, sometimes the team will need someone to write a couple of tests for tomorrow's experiment or prepare a short presentation for a visiting VC, and yes I am sticking up my hand to volunteer. If you think that doing something yourself is often faster than getting others to do it for you, and if you can actually deliver results that way, then innovation might be something for you.

Positions in innovative work are few and far between and are often sought after, so you need to position yourself well for that when preparing your CV. Your background in data science and your machine learning study will help, since those fields are currently firmly hanging ten at the top of the hype cycle. But also emphasize your versatility as it's a key quality in such roles: show that you have experience in adapting to circumstances, and in diving in when the project calls for it.

Art. (No joke)

[Qbertino]

Study art. Better yet: *Train* for an art.

Seriously. Is there an art (performing art in particular) where you say "OMG that is so awesome, I wish I could do that."? Study/train that. Obviously there are limits. If you're in a wheelchair doing ballet won't work. But perhaps music, singing, acting is something that would be an interesting challenge. I have a diploma in performing arts and even though I've never done anything remotely like that in the last 2 decades (except being quite good at social dancing (Argentine Tango)), the experience was like nothing else. It does help me do presentations, that's obvious, but I've also learned about styles and aesthetics, art history and how to move gracefully. It helps me with GUI design and understanding emotional aspects of the user experience.

Imagine getting a Chello and learning that. Your horizon will expand into a universe you couldn't dream of knowing doing IT/Software every day for the rest of your life. You probably have IT pretty much down and getting into some newfangled technology or PL is a walk in the park once you've got a broader perspective on life in general.

Art most likely won't earn you big bucks but from what I get that's not what you need right now anyway. Note that fine art is closer to programming as an art than performing arts, so I strongly suggest performing arts, but perhaps you do want to get into drawing or painting or illustraiont or - an intersection with IT - 3D/VR and stuff - then fine art might be a neat alternative.

But generally rest asured, if you move away from IT and into an art, your life in general will improve for the better. Especially with your life right now having you struggling for sense and meaning. If only art becomes an enriching addition to your life as an IT expert right now, that will spill over into your IT career and have measurable positive effects. Promise.

My 2 cents.

Re:AI/Networking/Security/Law

[jon3k]

Came here to post this. Security, security, security. It is an absolute gold rush right now and the problem is getting worse not better. I don't know how many people outside of the Bay Area or NYC are making $200k-$1M in security, but $100-$200k with only a couple years experience and a CISSP can probably get you 100-200k in pretty much any tier 1 or tier 2 city. Alternatively you can get into government contract work, get a TS(/SCI) and bounce around contractors with insanely good insurance and pretty much guaranteed work.

Re: How old are you?

[b0s0z0ku]

Funny, I know quite a few 35-40 year old men just starting med school. I know some 45 year old new Ph D.'s as well. Problem is that American white men are their own worst enemy -- they're expected to follow a career for life by society, like some 1950s nightmare. Society doesn't jugge a 40 year old woman going back to school OTOH.